Central Point, OR – Oregon-inspired culinary events, including a farmer’s market-style artisan food, beer, cider and wine festival, will kick off with the Meet the Cheesemakers and Winemakers Dinner. The Oregon Cheese Festival will be open to the public Saturday, March 17th from 11:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. & Sunday March 18th from 11:00am to 4:00pm at Rogue Creamery, 311 North Front St. (Hwy. 99), Central Point, OR. Held under 2 large tents, 15,000 sq. ft. of space, at the creamery’s Central Point facility, the fourteenth annual festival invites guests to shake hands with cheesemakers & other artisans. There will be baby cows on site to showcase the beginnings of great milk producers, and Sarah “The Cheese Lady” will be sculpting cheese into artistic creations! Activities will also be provided for children including games, activity sheets, coloring, face painting and more.

At the festival, thousands of visitors will sample cow, goat and sheep cheese from Oregon as well as other Northwest creameries, including:

A $15 entry fee includes tastings and demonstrations; tickets purchased at the door will be $20. Entry tickets can be purchased in advance at www.oregoncheesefestival.com now! In addition, a $10 wine, cider, beer and spirit tasting ticket is available and includes a commemorative glass with the Oregon Cheese Guild logo.

"The farmer's market format will present an interactive experience between makers and visitors, giving everyone an opportunity to talk about the product, the process and learn each individual cheesemaker's story," says David Gremmels, President of Rogue Creamery. "It's a way to truly be connected with the source of the cheese being presented."

Friday, March 16th - Dinner

To commence the festival, a sumptuous meal introducing guests to participating guild cheesemakers will be held Friday night at the Inn at the Commons in Medford, OR on March 16th from 6:00 P.M. – 9:00 P.M. The dinner is held for the benefit of the non-profit 501(c)(6) Oregon Cheesemakers Guild. Each course will spotlight a cheese made by one of the festival's artisans, paired with a local wine, beer or cider. Tickets available for purchase at www.oregoncheesefestival.com now!

We are excited to announce our Special Guest and Master of Ceremonies for the Dinner and Festival, David Gibbons! David Gibbons is a former sports writer, literary agent, and publishing executive turned cheese expert who currently writes the cheese column for Wine Spectator and is the most prolific contributor to The Oxford Companion to Cheese. He has co-written three books about cheese with Max McCalman: Mastering Cheese, which was named “Best Cheese Book in the World” at the 2011 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in Paris and was nominated for an IACP award; Cheese: A Connoisseur’s Guide to the World’s Best, which won a James Beard Award in 2006; and The Cheese Plate, nominated for James Beard and IACP awards in 2003. Gibbons wrote Overstreet’s New Wine Guide with Dennis Overstreet, The Wine Merchant of Beverly Hills, and has also ghost-written six cookbooks, including Dinner After Dark by Colin Cowie and Town/Country by Geoffrey Zakarian.

The festival would not be possible without the generous support of the City of Central Point, the Oregon Dairy and Nutrition Council, Wandering Aengus Ciderworks, Rogue Ales, Oregon Department of Agriculture, Face Rock Creamery, Oregon Economic & Community Development Department, Culture Magazine, Travel Medford, Cheese Connoisseur Magazine, Umpqua Bank, Rogue Credit Union, and the members of the Oregon Cheese Guild.